CHAPTER I
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOMINION AUTONOMY
THE war of 1914-18 was responsible for the definite Chapter
raising in an acute form of the status of the British '__
self-governing Dominions both as regards the United
Kingdom and the other states of the world. It is true
that the questions which came to be raised by the war
would in due course have demanded solution, but the
time for such action might long have been postponed
if the Dominions had not been compelled to realise
their essential implication in world affairs and their
complete dependence in many vital matters on the
United Kingdom. The regime of responsible govern-
ment, which had been recommended by Lord Durham
and which had been put into effective operation by
Lord Elgin in Canada in 1847, was one essentially
adapted to times of peace, for under such conditions
it was possible for the Dominions to achieve almost
complete internal autonomy without raising funda-
mental issues between them and the United Kingdom,
Lord Durham's proposals seemed to offer a solution to
the difficult question of the relation of an overseas
European population to the mother country; self-
government was speedily extended to the other pro-
vinces of British North America and to Newfoundland;
in 1855-56 it became operative in New South Wales,
Tasmania, and South Australia, and in New Zealand;
3